(This message series is inspired and excerpted from Heaven is Now by Andrew Farley)
And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus.20 By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place. 21 And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house, 22 let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. (Hebrews 10:19-23 NLT)
One of the most familiar activities in a twenty first century house is sitting down at the computer and logging on to a wireless network. This invisible connection to valuable resources is a vital component of contemporary life. Anything that interrupts this lifeline is decidedly annoying. There are two parts to this connection, a local network, and the internet link. It is possible to reap the benefit of a local wireless network without possessing privileges for the internet. However, it is not possible to access the internet wirelessly without a local network connection and router. For that reason, problems with the local connection create interruptions or complete disconnections with the internet connection. The connection status of local only signifies the user is relying entirely on his own resources and knowledge base. Corrupted connections must be repaired at the local level to restore access to the immense resources and knowledge available from the greater provider. How much have you come to depend on an internet connection? How much have you come to depend on a Spiritual connection?
Let’s take a look at how we were created to connect and what happened.
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” [27] So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:26-27 ESV) [direct link to “internet”]
The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. [16] And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, [17] but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:15-17 ESV) [warning about “surfing without virus protection”]
He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” [12] The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” [13] Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” (Genesis 3:11-13 ESV) [viewed unauthorized site]
Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” [23] therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. [24] He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. (Genesis 3:22-24 ESV) [“internet” privileges revoked – “local only” status]
Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created. [3] When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.
(Genesis 5:2-3 ESV) [“local only” status passed on to us!]
We are who we are by birth, not by what we do. How does this help you hear the Spirit bearing witness to your true identity as a child of God?
“While Adam was originally created in God’s image, Satan managed to steal that identity from him, and from us. The fall changed everything. As a result of the fall in Eden, we are born in Adam’s spiritual image. It is only when we receive new life in our spirits that we are recreated and renewed again in God’s image. We regain the spiritual identity that God intended for us:” (loc. 725 of 2138) [“internet” connection privileges restored permanently]
Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices [10] and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. [11] Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all. (Colossians 3:9-11 ESV)
“Thanks to our death with Jesus, we’re now reborn. We’re plugged in to the life of God. We’ve been re-created in the image of Jesus Christ.
So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. [17] By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. (1 John 4:16-17 ESV)
As new creations, we are already like Christ in our human spirits. And we are called to live out this new identity as our minds get renewed to the truth of who we really are at the core. All of this brings real meaning to the idea of being “born again.” We need a fresh start. There’s no cleaning up the old. It can only be replaced. This is precisely what happens to us at salvation – the old goes away and the new arrives. We are reborn in God’s spiritual image.” (loc. 733 of 2138)
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. (2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV)
Do you consistently live like your connection to life has been restored permanently? How often do wish you were closer to God?
For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. (Colossians 3:3 ESV)
But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. (1 Corinthians 6:17 ESV)
“Have you thought about what it means to be enveloped along with Christ inside of God himself? We toss around phrases like ‘being out of fellowship’ and ‘trying to get close to God.’ All the while God’s Spirit is bearing witness, if we would only listen, that we are one spirit with him. We are hidden safely in him right next to Jesus. Can you get any closer than that? ” (loc. 733 of 2138) [Your local connection is permanently connected to the Original Server]
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, [5] even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— [6] and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, [7] so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:4-7 ESV)
“So God invites us to recognize an invisible yet enduring reality — that we are new, that we are one with him, and that we are seated with him in heaven already.” (loc. 753 of 2138) What’s it like to be safe at last?
Heaven Speaks (What Jesus might say if He were sitting right here.)
“I have taken every measure as the careful overseer of your soul. I bore your sins in my body on the cross. And through my wounds you have been healed of the spiritual sickness you once knew. In my wisdom, I forgave you and lavished you with my liberating grace.
Consequently, you no longer live for yourself but for me. You are now my new creation, and your old self is dead and gone. You have put on the new self. Yes, you’re still being renewed in a true knowledge of me, but you can’t be any newer at the core.
It’s most fitting for you to set your mind on things above, where you’ve been raised and seated with me. You’re free to choose, but don’t use your freedom as an opportunity for foolish living. the outcome of those choices is only shame and disappointment. They’re an expression of death. You, on the other hand, are designed to express my divine life.
You have died, and your new life is hidden safely with me. I have equipped you with everything you need for life and godliness. In my kindness, I allowed you to share in my heavenly image. Since you are born of me, my nature resides in you. You can’t continue in sinful patterns without experiencing an internal resistance to it all. It simply doesn’t agree with who you are now.
I am the Lord Jesus Christ, the last Adam and the life-giving Spirit. I have forgiven you and made you alive in me. Hear my Spirit bearing witness to your true identity.” (loc. 772 of 2138) (inspired by 1 Peter 2:24-25; 4:2; Eph. 1:8; 2:4-5; 5:3; Col. 2:13; 3:2-4, 9-10; 2 Cor. 5:17; Rom. 6:6, 21; 8:16; John 17:23; Gal. 5:13, 17; 2 Peter 1:3-4; 1 Cor. 15:45, 49.) Share your thoughts.
Awakening to Heaven (a sample closing prayer)
“Thank you for the second half of the gospel – that you not only forgave me but also made me new at the core. Thank you for allowing me to participate in your death, burial, and resurrection so that I might truly live. Thank you for freedom from sin’s power, the freedom to say no to its allure. Remind me to set my mind on the truth of my newness in you. I cannot thank you enough for remaining with me and in me, no matter what. You could not have demonstrated your love in a greater way. You have given me a heavenly life and a heavenly hope right here and now. I love you, Jesus.” (loc. 789 of 2138)
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